Untamed Heart

Infobox_Film
name = Untamed Heart


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Tony Bill
producer = Tony Bill
Helen Buck Bartlett
writer = Tom Sierchio
starring = Marisa Tomei
Christian Slater
Rosie Perez
music = Cliff Eidelman
cinematography = Jost Vacano
editing = Mia Goldman
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = February 12, 1993
runtime = 102 min.
country = United States
language = English
amg_id = 1:51938
imdb_id = 0108451

"Untamed Heart" is a 1993 film starring Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei. It mixes drama with romance and comedy and tells the story of a young woman, always unlucky in love, trying to find happiness with a very shy young man. The film is directed by Tony Bill and written by Tom Sierchio. The original music score is composed by Cliff Eidelman.

Plot summary

Caroline (Tomei) is a young woman working as a waitress who is always unlucky in love. Adam (Slater) is a shy busboy who saves Caroline when two men try to rape her on her way home one night. She then gets to know him. They become close, but she finds out his past, and the attackers come after Adam for revenge. As their relationship progresses, Caroline discovers that Adam has a heart defect, though he claims he has a baboon heart. After catching a hockey puck at a game, he dies of heart failure in her car.

Production

Tony Bill discovered Tom Sierchio’s screenplay for "Untamed Heart" during one of his talent hunts. He asked an agent at William Morris to send him screenplays from new writers. Originally, Sierchio’s screenplay had been submitted as a writer’s sample. Bill showed the screenplay to producer Helen Bartlett who suggested that they option it. Within two weeks of Sierchio handing his script to his agent, MGM had greenlighted the project. Originally the film was entitled, "The Baboon Heart" in honor of an infant named Baby Fae (born 14 October 1984) who received a cross-species heart transplant from a baboon to fix a congenital heart defect.

Initially, Bill had not considered Christian Slater for the role of Adam, “but then it was just the obvious choice." [cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = Untamed Heart Production Notes
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = MGM
date =
url = http://fan.tahlmorra.net/untamedheart/premiere/005.jpg
accessdate = 2006-12-20 ] For the role of Caroline, Bill remembered auditioning Marisa Tomei for his earlier film, "Five Corners". She had been too young for that role but after her success with "My Cousin Vinny", he knew she was right for this film.

Sierchio’s screenplay was originally set in New Jersey but for logistical reasons they could not shoot there. The filmmakers considered finding a location to double for the state but while Bill, Bartlett and Sierchio were scouting in Minneapolis, they realized that it was the perfect place because of its strong acting community (they cast 35 of the film’s 40 roles from it) and a large commercial producing community which allowed them to utilize a mostly local crew.

The city’s locations were also a strong factor in deciding to shoot there. The centerpiece was Jim’s Coffee Shop & Bakery, which actually existed at the time of production but was closed to the public for the duration of shooting the film. Bill said, “It had a wonderful combination of ingredients from every diner you’ve ever been to; we’ve done very little to change it for the film. In fact, we changed the original name of the diner in the script to reflect that it is Jim’s." [cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = Untamed Heart Production Notes
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = MGM
date =
url = http://fan.tahlmorra.net/untamedheart/premiere/008.jpg
accessdate = 2006-12-20 ]

Principal photography began in March 1992 amidst cold temperatures. However, several scenes in winter were shot in May and fake snow had to be created to maintain the illusion.

Tomei wanted to have a believable regional accent and chose a driver who was from the area and could act as her “dialogue coach.” Once she got the accent down, she continued to speak in it on and off the set.

Cast

* Marisa Tomei as Caroline
* Christian Slater as Adam
* Rosie Perez as Cindy
* Kyle Secor as Howard
* Willie Garson as Patsy

Critical responses

Roger Ebert, a film critic of the "Chicago Sun-Times" felt that the movie was "kind of sweet and kind of goofy, and works because its heart is in the right place." [cite news
last = Ebert
first = Roger
coauthors =
title = Untamed Heart
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Chicago Sun-Times
date = February 12, 1993
url = http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19930212/REVIEWS/302120305/1023
accessdate = 2006-12-20 ] Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" said that the film "is hopelessly syrupy, preposterous and more than a little bit lame, but, still, somehow it got to me." [cite news
last = Hinson
first = Hal
coauthors =
title = Untamed Heart
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = The Washington Post
date = February 12, 1993
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/untamedheartpg13hinson_a0a7e6.htm
accessdate = 2006-12-20 ] Vincent Canby of "The New York Times", said that the movie "is to the mind what freshly discarded chewing gum is to the sole of a shoe: an irritant that slows movement without any real danger of stopping it." [cite news
last = Canby
first = Vincent
coauthors =
title = Boyfriend Has Heart Of Baboon
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = The New York Times
date = February 12, 1993
url = http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=UNTAMED%20HEART%20%28MOVIE%29&title2=&reviewer=Vincent%20Canby&pdate=19930212&v_id=51938
accessdate = 2006-12-20 ]

References

External links

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* [http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=UNTAMEDH Official site]